閱讀薩爾蒂科夫·謝德林 Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin在小说之家的作品!!! | |||
薩爾蒂科夫·謝德林於1826年出生在一個地主家庭。他自幼目睹了地主階級的專橫暴虐及他們對農民的殘酷壓迫和剝削。10歲時他進入莫斯科貴族學校，兩年後因成績優異被保送進皇村學校。當時別林斯基、赫爾岑的革命民主主義思想和現實主義文學理想，彼特拉捨夫斯基的空想社會主義思想對謝德林影響很深。後來，他加入彼特拉捨夫斯基小組，研究空想社會主義著作。
謝德林在學生時代就開始從事文學創作。他於1841年發表第一首詩《竪琴》，1847年他發表了第一個中篇小說《矛盾》，次年，他的另一部中篇小說《錯綜復雜的事件》問世。這兩部作品反映了理想與實現的矛盾，大膽地提出了社會不平等的尖銳問題。作品由於帶有強烈的政治色彩而被政府查禁，謝德林也被逮捕，流放到維亞特卡。
在流放期間謝德林接觸了統治階級的各種代表人物，也對人民的苦難有了更深刻的瞭解。1856年，謝德林獲釋返回彼得堡，不久發表了以流放期間的見聞為素材的特寫集《外省散記》，並在《俄國導報》上連載。《外省散記》包括三十多篇特寫，深刻揭露了農奴製俄國的腐敗。
從1860年到1884年，謝德林先後任當時俄國進步文學雜志《現代人》和《祖國紀事》的編輯。這兩個雜志及時地刊載了反映當時重大政治事件的文章，與反動派及自由主義的刊物進行激烈的論戰，它們雖屢遭反動當局的刁難和迫害，但始終是當時俄國進步力量的中心。
在雜志社工作的時期，也是謝德林創作的豐收年代，他寫了許多諷刺作品，其中最為突出的作品是諷刺小說《一個城市的歷史》和長篇小說《戈洛夫廖夫一傢》。
1884年《祖國紀事》被查封，這對謝德林是個沉重的打擊，但他沒有放下手中的筆。雖已年高多病，但他仍然寫出了既有政治諷刺內容又有藝術魅力的名作《童話集》，《童話集》可以說是他一生創作的結晶。
謝德林愛憎分明的創作幫助了人民尋找馬剋思主義與革命鬥爭的道路，推動了俄國解放運動。1889年5月10日，謝德林不幸病逝。但他塑造的藝術典型卻成為人民與敵人鬥爭時經常使用的犀利武器。列寧對謝德林的評價很高，認為他“曾經教導俄國社會要透過農奴製地主所謂有教養的喬裝打扮的外表，識別他的強取豪奪的利益，教導人們憎恨諸如此類的虛偽和冷酷無情”。
Early life
A scion of the ancient Saltykov family, Mikhail Saltykov was born on his father’s estate in the province of Tula. His early education was neglected, and his youth, owing to the severity and the domestic quarrels of his parents, had many melancholy experiences. Largely neglected, he developed a love for reading, though the only book in his father’s house was the Bible, which he studied attentively.
At ten years of age he entered the Moscow Institute for sons of the nobility, and subsequently the Lyceum at Saint Petersburg, where Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky, afterwards minister for foreign affairs, was one of his schoolfellows. While there he published poetry, and translations of some of the works of Lord Byron and Heinrich Heine, and on graduating the Lyceum he obtained employment as a clerk for the Ministry of War.
During 1854 he published A Complicated Affair, which, because of the revolutionary activity at that time in France and Germany, was the cause of his banishment to Vyatka, where he spent eight years as a minor government official. This experience enabled him to study the life and habits of civil servants in the interior, and to give a clever description of Russian provincial officials in his Provincial Sketches.
[edit]Later life
Portrait by Nikolai Yaroshenko, 1886
On his return to Saint Petersburg he was soon promoted to administrative posts of considerable importance. After making a report on the condition of the Russian police, he was appointed deputy governor, first of Ryazan and then of Tver. His predilection for literary work induced him to end his government service, but pecuniary difficulties soon compelled him to re-enter it, and during 1864 he was appointed president of the local boards of taxation successively at Penza, Tula and Ryazan.
During 1868 he finally quit the civil service. Subsequently he wrote his principal works, namely, The Old Times of Poshekhonye, which possesses a certain autobiographical interest, The History of a Town, a satirical allegory of Russian history, Messieurs et Mesdames Pompadours; and his only novel, The Golovlyov Family (also translated as House of Greed). The latter book, often considered his masterpiece, is a study of overpowering greed.
Saltykov's last publication was a collection of satirical fables and tales. He died in Saint Petersburg and was interred in the Literary Cemetery. "The sole object of my literary work," wrote Saltykov-Shchedrin, "was unfailingly to protest against greed, hypocrisy, falsehood, theft, treachery, stupidity of modern Russians".
[edit]Works
The greater part of Saltykov's work is a rather nondescript kind of satirical journalism, generally with little or no narrative structure, and intermediate in form between the classical "character" and the contemporary feuilleton. Greatly popular though it was in its own time, it has since lost much of its appeal simply because it satirizes social conditions that have long ceased to exist and much of it has become unintelligible without commentary.
During 1869-70 he published The History of a Town, which sums up the achievement of Saltykov's first period. It is a sort of parody of Russian history, concentrated in the microcosm of a provincial town, whose successive governors are transparent caricatures of Russian sovereigns and ministers, and whose very name is representative of its qualities — Glupov (literally, Sillytown).
Most works of Saltykov's later period are written in a language that the satirist himself called Aesopic. It is one continuous circumlocution because of censorship and requires a constant reading commentary. The style, moreover, is based on the bad journalistic style of the period, which originated largely with Osip Senkovsky, and which today invariably produces an impression of painfully elaborate vulgarity.
The Golovlyov Family was decried by D. S. Mirsky as the gloomiest book in all Russian literature — all the more gloomy because the effect is attained by the simplest means without any theatrical, melodramatic, or atmospheric effects. The most remarkable character of this novel is Porfiry Golovlyov, nicknamed 'Little Judas', the empty and mechanical hypocrite who cannot stop talking unctuous and meaningless humbug, not for any inner need or outer profit, but because his tongue is in need of constant exercise.